When a computer system encounters an error that causes the operating system, for example, to cease processing (sometimes referred to as a “crash”), it is desired to record information useful in (a) evaluating and analyzing operations of the computer system, and (b) diagnosing a root cause of the crash. The recorded information is referred to as a core dump, and is typically recorded before the system shuts down—the information in the core dump represents the state of the computer system at the time the crash occurred. In particular, the core dump typically includes contents of all memory locations, along with various registers, accumulators, and the like. Since the information ought to survive system shutdown, it is typically written to a permanent storage medium such as a disk.
In another scenario that commonly arises when a computer system crashes, provision may be made for debugging. To do so, typically, an interface is presented on a display monitor, which monitor may also display crash specific information (e.g., type of error and register contents). In particular, a simple user interface may be presented with support limited to keyboard commands only or a more complex graphical user interface may be presented with support for keyboard, mouse and other input devices. In some cases, a debugging interface may support browsing of system logs, viewing a callstack of a faulting processor, and possibly other processors, binary and/or symbolic inspection and modification of system memory, soft reboot of the system, and possibly other features.